March 9, 2023, Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, Türkiye – Roof installation in the turbine hall of Akkuyu NPP Unit 1 of has been completed. The entire process took three months, the first truss was installed on December 10, 2022.
The turbine hall roof consists of nine enlarged trusses with a total weight of 1140 tons, including the roof cover. Enlarged assembly of trusses weighing from 110 to 200 tons each was performed at the construction site simultaneously on two jigs that were made particularly for the operation. The installation was performed using Liebherr 13000 heavy crawler crane.
Prior to installing the last trusses of the structure, builders assembled several components of heavy and large equipment of the turbine plant, including the deaerator vessel and the feed water tank. The next stage of work will be the roof installation.
“Installing the turbine building roof trusses is a complex and lengthy operation that requires careful preparation. Each truss is installed with an accuracy of ten millimeters. Akkuyu NPP construction and installation team successfully coped with the task, despite the tight schedule and difficult weather conditions. At the next stage of the turbine hall construction, we will have to proceed with the installation of the main assemblies and components of the turbine generator set,” said First Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Director of NPP under construction Sergei Butсkikh noted.
Construction and installation works at the Akkuyu NPP site are ongoing at all sections of the main and auxiliary facilities construction: four power units, onshore hydraulic engineering structures, power distribution systems, administrative buildings, training center, physical protection facilities. All construction stages are thoroughly monitored by independent inspection organizations and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Turkey (NDK).
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Akkuyu NPP is the first nuclear power plant being built in the Republic of Turkey. The Akkuyu NPP project consists of four power units with Russian-designed VVER generation 3+ reactors. The capacity of each power unit is 1200 MW. Currently, the project is entirely financed by the Russian side. At the same time, ROSATOM has the right to sell a share of up to 49% in the project to other investors. Akkuyu NPP is the first project in the global nuclear industry being implemented according to the Build-Own-Operate model.
According to terms and conditions of the Inter-Governmental Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey, the NPP’s first power unit is supposed ti be commissioned within 7 years after obtaining all construction authorizations and licenses. Taking into account the receipt of a construction license for power unit No. 1 in 2018, this period means 2025. At the same time, the project participants are making every effort to ensure that in 2023, the anniversary year for the Republic of Turkey, a key event takes place – the delivery of fresh nuclear fuel to the Akkuyu NPP site.
Akkuyu NPP is able to withstand extreme external impacts – floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and their combinations. The plant is designed to withstand an earthquake of up to 9 points on the MSK-64 scale. All Russian modern nuclear reactors of the VVER type have a containment system designed for extreme loads. The containment consists of an external reinforced concrete wall and an internal containment, which provides tightness and withstands external impact from a shock wave that creates a pressure of 30 kPa. For this, the containment is made of “prestressed concrete”: metal cables stretched inside the concrete containment give additional solidity to the structure, increasing its stability, including during an earthquake.
